My airport ExtremE base station stops working once a week

About every 8 days it has to be reset. It is not even recognized to be there by my PB even after a shutdown of my PB, Unplugging the base station for 30 seconds, or aanything. After reset it works fine(the base station). What should I do?

Can you join your network, or does it tell you "no networks within range?" If you can join the network but not use the internet you might be having a DHCP lease issue--your ISP changes your IP but the router holds onto the old one. This can be corrected. If the computer doesn't see the router then you probably have what appears to be a common problem--especially on the models with a modem (do you have a modem on yours?). There's no official explanation or fix. They've put out a bunch of firmware upgrades that didn't help. The best explanation I've heard so far is that it's heat related and turning down transmittion strength helps. I have my transmitter set to 25% now and since I did that it hasn't cut out on me--we're talking about over a week when it would cut out daily. At 50% and even a bit lower I still had problems. There's a bunch of stuff about this on Apple's discussion board.

well i used to have these problems too. apple seemed to fix most of them with their numerous software and firmware updates. make sure you have 3.1 software updated installed and the 5.1 firmware uploaded and installed in your base station.

Yeah it is one with a modem. Strange that I never saww that I have become a pretty big mac geek and I love it and read forums for no damned reason constantly(I especially like this one). I mostly lurk around. Anyway, I've been up to date on all updates and stuff and it's not an internet thing if it's likepopping PB speakers and burning hot isights I guess we will just have to deal with it. I am going to shorten my range to see what happens though.
(((k)))

Originally posted by PHARAOHk Yeah it is one with a modem. [snip] I am going to shorten my range to see what happens though.
(((k)))

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Post back after a few days and let us know your outcome. I had to bump mine down to 25% to eliminate the problem. It hurts range, but it wasn't much of a hardship for me since I only need about 30-40 feet. If I had to go for full power I'd be in a spot.

check...note to self: Don't buy the base station with the modem if I want to avoid heat related signal chop. Right?

This is good to know. I'm still awaiting the PB update and was pondering the pros and cons of purchasing a base station with a modem, but based more on likely use, not inherent flaws. I can always use another reason to avoid relocating to areas without broadband, and being chained to a wall isn't all that horrible when on the road.

Set me straight if I've misunderstood. I can claim an abundance of Airport ignorance.

Yes cyberddot, afaik this is a problem with the modem models only. Well, and apparently the original AirPort base stations, but they're discontinued. At work I have 3 AirPort Extreme base stations in use that don't have the modem and they all work perfectly.

I don't know what I was thinking getting the modem in the first place. I have broadband and don't need the range the antenna port gives. I wonder if I can fax through that modem--that would at least make it useful.

My airport extreme base station (without modem) has been doing something like this lately. Ill notice my internet start to get slow and then ill start getting server not found errors in safari and then all web browsing dies and then i get disconnected from the aim server. All three status lights on the base station are lit continuously, no flashing. When I unplug the power cord of the base station for a minute or two and then back in everything works fine. But then eventually the same thing happens all over again. It's so annoying!

Smada, that sounds like you're doing a hell of a lot of downloading. Slow connection, servers not found, and all the lights lit up solid. Sounds like heavy network traffic. Are you sure this isn't the case?

If you have the same issue we've been talking about, everything will work like normal until it doesn't work at all. It will look like normal (solid middle light, some blinking on the right, the odd blink on the left) but the network won't show up in your AirPort menu. You'll get the "no networks in range" greyed out thing. A reset on the base station might (but usually won't) help.

By the way, if you happen to get all 3 lights on the base station blinking together you have a dead base station.

Is it possible you've got some hitchhikers? It really does sound like heavy network traffic through your base station. What kind of security do you have in place?

Remember what those lights mean. Right is communication with the cable/dsl modem and left is communication with the computers using the network. Both of them lit up solid, or blinking very little, means a lot of communication.

Same thing here. AE with no modem. About once a week or so (maybe every 10 days) I get the "no neworks in range" thing. I restart the mac a couple times, no help. I restart the base station and that solves the problem. The worst part is that the base station is two floors up in the nursrey and the macs are in the basement.

The weird thing is this: I've got two macs, and one can be working fine on the airport and the other is getting no signal, while they're sitting three feet apart. Restarting the mac in question doesn't help, only restarting the base station.

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